Presently, there are many types of mounting brackets available on the market for mounting electrical boxes to wall studs. Many of the mounting brackets are designed to be mounted to a single wall stud for supporting a single electrical box. While these mounting brackets work well, they do not provide a wide range of adjustability between wall studs and only support a single electrical box. Accordingly, mounting brackets for supporting a plurality of electrical boxes have been developed which span between a pair of adjacent wall studs to allow the builder to conveniently position the electrical box or boxes between the wall studs.
One example of a prior mounting bracket, which is capable of supporting a wide variety of electrical boxes, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,137 to Oliva. The mounting bracket of the Oliva patent provides infinite adjustability and can be used with boxes of different depths. Moreover, the mounting bracket of the Oliva patent can be used to either a 4 inch square electrical box or a 4 11/16 inch square electrical box or both. However, one disadvantage of the mounting bracket disclosed in this patent is that it allows for too much vertical movement of certain sizes of electrical boxes such that one of the mounting screws of a wiring device can bottom out on the mounting bracket and thus cannot be fully threaded into the cover. More specifically, the central cutout of the mounting bracket of this patent is too large such that mounting screws coupling the electrical box and cover together can move vertically within the central cutout of the mounting bracket of the patent. This movement of the electrical box can cause the threaded hole in the cover for mounting a wiring device to overlap with the mounting bracket such that the mounting screw of the wiring device cannot be fully threaded into the cover.
Examples of mounting brackets for electrical boxes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,667 to Swanson and U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,836 to Swanson. These devices have a bracket that can be mounted to wall studs and support an electrical box between the studs.
While the prior devices are generally suitable for the intended purpose, there is a continuing need in the industry for an improved mounting assembly for mounting electrical boxes and other electrical devices,